https://miatblog.org/2019/03/communication-frustration-and-assistive-technology/
I'm going to go on the record and say I really, really prefer to have the option to press buttons when navigating an automated phone line. I have no documented verbal tics, stuttering, or any other form of diagnosed speaking difficulty. I do kind of slur my words together, which I'm sure doesn't help people or machines understand me, but it has absolutely nothing on actual speech impediments.
Speech and language issues are common in autistic people, and that's even before you mix in things like cerebral palsy and Tourette syndrome. It's patently obvious why multiple input options are necessary, given this slice of life article and those facts. You shouldn't have to struggle to articulate the word "haircut" when it's simple to provide the additional option to press 1. Ideally, both verbal and button-pushing options would be available in an automated phone line like this. It's worth noting that you can sometimes go directly to a live person by pressing 0, but that doesn't always work.
Honestly, a lot of these kinds of accommodations are good for everyone. I find speaking to a phone tree mentally exhausting, and much prefer to press buttons. It gets orders of magnitude more exhausting when you have to fight to be understood at each step of the process. Which is why I'm glad there are websites like this one, which try to present workarounds and assistive technologies. It's not the same as making a world built for everyone, but it's a start.
I've actually used text-to-speech apps in the past, so I could converse with dental assistants. They have this tendency to try to hold a conversation while shoving fingers in my mouth. That makes it kind of hard to keep up my end of it, but with my tablet in hand, I merely need to turn up the volume and hold it so I can see what I'm typing. Problem solved, don't need my lips or tongue to communicate any more. They never sound quite right (though that's changing!), but it's far better to have that method of communication than to be barred from it.
Mostly, in linking you to this article, I want you to really think about what it'd be like to live Rachel Dancy's life. I feel that, after maybe a dozen interactions with some people with cerebral palsy, I'm maybe starting to understand little bit. The two women I spent time with needed plastic straws to drink safely. Because of their muscular issues, holding a glass, tipping it just the right amount, and swallowing at the right time is nearly impossible.
Both women had slightly different "accents" due to their cerebral palsy, and required a certain amount of concentration and time to understand and communicate with. Every thought they chose to express took at least twice as long for them to verbalize than it would for someone else. In this fast-paced world, it must be very common for people to become impatient and snippy with you, even though you're trying your best. You can see this impatience in the salon person's response to Rachel's stuttering, and in Rachel's decision to tell the phone system "manicure" instead of continuing the struggle with saying the word "haircut."
Kind of sobering for someone like me, who takes their speech capabilities for granted most of the time. But a very real situation for many people. These fellow humans deserve as much attention as I do, if not more.
I'm going to go on the record and say I really, really prefer to have the option to press buttons when navigating an automated phone line. I have no documented verbal tics, stuttering, or any other form of diagnosed speaking difficulty. I do kind of slur my words together, which I'm sure doesn't help people or machines understand me, but it has absolutely nothing on actual speech impediments.
Speech and language issues are common in autistic people, and that's even before you mix in things like cerebral palsy and Tourette syndrome. It's patently obvious why multiple input options are necessary, given this slice of life article and those facts. You shouldn't have to struggle to articulate the word "haircut" when it's simple to provide the additional option to press 1. Ideally, both verbal and button-pushing options would be available in an automated phone line like this. It's worth noting that you can sometimes go directly to a live person by pressing 0, but that doesn't always work.
Honestly, a lot of these kinds of accommodations are good for everyone. I find speaking to a phone tree mentally exhausting, and much prefer to press buttons. It gets orders of magnitude more exhausting when you have to fight to be understood at each step of the process. Which is why I'm glad there are websites like this one, which try to present workarounds and assistive technologies. It's not the same as making a world built for everyone, but it's a start.
I've actually used text-to-speech apps in the past, so I could converse with dental assistants. They have this tendency to try to hold a conversation while shoving fingers in my mouth. That makes it kind of hard to keep up my end of it, but with my tablet in hand, I merely need to turn up the volume and hold it so I can see what I'm typing. Problem solved, don't need my lips or tongue to communicate any more. They never sound quite right (though that's changing!), but it's far better to have that method of communication than to be barred from it.
Mostly, in linking you to this article, I want you to really think about what it'd be like to live Rachel Dancy's life. I feel that, after maybe a dozen interactions with some people with cerebral palsy, I'm maybe starting to understand little bit. The two women I spent time with needed plastic straws to drink safely. Because of their muscular issues, holding a glass, tipping it just the right amount, and swallowing at the right time is nearly impossible.
Both women had slightly different "accents" due to their cerebral palsy, and required a certain amount of concentration and time to understand and communicate with. Every thought they chose to express took at least twice as long for them to verbalize than it would for someone else. In this fast-paced world, it must be very common for people to become impatient and snippy with you, even though you're trying your best. You can see this impatience in the salon person's response to Rachel's stuttering, and in Rachel's decision to tell the phone system "manicure" instead of continuing the struggle with saying the word "haircut."
Kind of sobering for someone like me, who takes their speech capabilities for granted most of the time. But a very real situation for many people. These fellow humans deserve as much attention as I do, if not more.
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